# cippus
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cippus (“stake, post”). Doublet of cep.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈsɪ.pəs/

### Noun

cippus (plural cippuses or cippi)
* A small, low pillar, square or round, commonly having an inscription, used by the ancients for various purposes, as for indicating the distances of places, for a landmark, for sepulchral inscriptions, etc.
** 1855, Henry Duncan, Autumn:[…] lodged on the top of an ancient sepulchral cippus
** 1892, Thomas Keightley, Fairy Mythology, London: George Bell and Sons, page 5:[A] cippus, found at Valencia in Spain, has on one of its sides Fatus Q. Fabius ex voto, and on the other, three female figures, with the attributes of the Mœræ or Parcæ.
* (historical) The stocks.

#### Translations
### References

* “cippus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* cīpus
* ceppus (Medieval Latin)

### Etymology

Seemingly from a Proto-Italic *keipos (where Latin cīpus would be the older form), likely related to scīpiō, of unclear further origin. De Vaan derives the word from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱéypos (“pole, stick”), connecting it to Sanskrit शेप (śepa, “penis, tail”). However, the irregular alternation between the form with short ĭ and geminate pp versus that with long ī with singular p is difficult to explain; it could indicate contamination from another Italic dialect or borrowing from a substrate language, or it could be a normal Latin sound law seen also in littera from lītera. Not related to Latin scāpus, English shaft, Ancient Greek σκήπτω (skḗptō), despite some such suggestions.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈkip.pus/, [ˈkɪpːʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈt͡ʃip.pus/, [ˈt͡ʃipːus]

### Noun

cippus m (genitive cippī); second declension
* stake, post
* gravestone, tombstone
* landmark, boundary marker
* (military, in the plural) bulwark of sharpened stakes
* menhir

#### Declension

Second-declension noun.

#### Descendants

* Catalan: cep
* French: cippe, cep, cèpe, sep
** → English: cepe, cep
* Galician: cepo, cepa
* Italian: cippo, ceppo
* Occitan: cep
* Portuguese: cipo, cepo
* Romanian: cep
* Sicilian: cippu
* Spanish: cipo, cepo
* → Proto-Brythonic: *kɨf
** Middle Breton: queff
** Middle Welsh: kyff
*** → Welsh: cyff
* → Middle Irish: cepp
** Irish: ceap
* → Old High German: kipfa, chipf
** German: Kipfl
*** → English: kipfel
* → German: Kippe

### References

* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “cippus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 115

### Further reading

* “cippus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “cippus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* cippus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* cippus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* “cippus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “cippus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin